Two Years Of Improvements In Meteor Cylinder Kits (Brad's Pics)

[Mastermind]

Now the new kit is better, before this no improvement. Heck you took the pics, and they weren't even taken from similar angels. You haven't answered why you have a problem porting one. Aside from a bad bore or plating, or ports cast way out of place, porting should be straight forward. What is bad about the cylinder if it is ported? A novice should be able to make one run pretty good. I still say run it stock or send it to someone that will.

I have a 440 torn down on the bench just waiting for him to send it.

 

[komatsuvarna]

I think the difference is obvious. I remember the first one I seen a few years ago was for a 460 and it was ugly...real ugly. I've seen a few lately that were 90% better than they were. OEM for me and I try to push OEM, but the majority of firewood cutters and people that use saws outside of AS doesn't really give a damn what name is on the cylinder under all that grime and filth. They want it to run and cut wood and make money with as little invested as possible. No doubt these topend kits will do that right out of the box. Just my little opinion so it isn't worth much :msp_unsure:.

 

[Jacob J.]

And the reason you guys don't use Tecomec is?

Tecomec's catalog doesn't include many newer models of saws. I've used Tecomec kits for 038 and 026 and they were excellent.
Tecomec hasn't delved into anything newer than 1996.

TECOMEC

 

[albert]

Understood. One of the problems I've seen is a lack in consistency in quality with all AM kits. One guy gets a good one, one gets a ring catcher. That makes rating the quality more difficult.

How many stock top ends do you install? Has anyone on here had a ring snag on a stock meteor? The only ring catchers I have seen were from bad port jobs and crappy big bore rings, and some of them had modded cylinders.

 

[ptjeep]

the majority of firewood cutters and people that use saws outside of AS doesn't really give a damn what name is on the cylinder under all that grime and filth. They want it to run and cut wood and make money with as little invested as possible. No doubt these topend kits will do that right out of the box. Just my little opinion so it isn't worth much :msp_unsure:.

Dead nuts spot on!

 

[mifirewoodguy]

I still don't see where they are more work to port. Could someone please tell me what I'm missing?

Randy, Understand Im not taking sides here, just trying to see where Brad is coming from. I use Meteor parts alot and find them just fine for my application.

 

[tlandrum]

randy what ever happen to the cylinder you got from jeremy. the one that jeremy cleaned up and still didnt like its performance. i thought you ported it and still were not happy yourself with its performance compared to oem. i know these cylinders can be cleaned up and ported but can they run with an simularly ported oem. thats the reason i wont use them. its not becouse they cant be cleaned up and ported to run. but if the aftermarket isnt up to par performance wise will it be the cylinder manufacturer that suffers or me that suffers. what i see happening is even if these cylinders clean up nicely ,if they dont run as good as oem people will blame the builder for poor port work. i know people do in deed need a cheaper alternative to the high oem prices but at what cost to a saw builders repitation. id love to be able to give folks a low cost alternative to oem but until the cylinders are a straight up bolt on alternative to stock oem i will wait for them improve before i will use them.

 

[Mastermind]

randy what ever happen to the cylinder you got from jeremy. the one that jeremy cleaned up and still didnt like its performance. i thought you ported it and still were not happy yourself with its performance compared to oem. i know these cylinders can be cleaned up and ported but can they run with an simularly ported oem. thats the reason i wont use them. its not becouse they cant be cleaned up and ported to run. but if the aftermarket isnt up to par performance wise will it be the cylinder manufacturer that suffers or me that suffers. what i see happening is even if these cylinders clean up nicely ,if they dont run as good as oem people will blame the builder for poor port work. i know people do in deed need a cheaper alternative to the high oem prices but at what cost to a saw builders repitation. id love to be able to give folks a low cost alternative to oem but until the cylinders are a straight up bolt on alternative to stock oem i will wait for them improve before i will use them.

I gave that saw away....a friend of mine was down to a 028 and was logging...he needed it much worse than I did. It was an early kit, probably like Brad's first one. It's still killing trees.

 

[tlandrum]

randy id say it will be running for a long time. kudos for you helping a fella out and theres not doubt that it is a strong saw to boot. but is it oem strong,probably not. if we could make people understand that they are not going to be oem strong without us as the builder being in question of ability fo getting the job done right id use them myself. but we know how that will go. if you send a few out and there not quite as strong as other work youve done are the owners going to own up to using aftermarket over oem? or are they going to keep hushed up and blame the builder? i myself dont want to find out.

 

[DSS]

The only real problem I see is the reverse taper in the squish, but that being said, joe homeowner isn't going to be pulling the base gasket to try for 200 psi, and you guys cut the squish band anyway, so.....

I still don't understand why its so much more work to port these. If the exhaust port is out of whack, so what? You grind it all out anyway. Does it really take that much more time to go another eighth of an inch?

 

[Mad Professor]

Tecomec's catalog doesn't include many newer models of saws. I've used Tecomec kits for 038 and 026 and they were excellent.
Tecomec hasn't delved into anything newer than 1996.

TECOMEC

I agree that limited kits are a problem. But lots of early stihl and husky kits. They have also added separate piston and ring kits recently.

If you can't afford OEM, and Tecomec is an option, I'd not look at Meteor.

 

[Mastermind]

randy id say it will be running for a long time. kudos for you helping a fella out and theres not doubt that it is a strong saw to boot. but is it oem strong,probably not. if we could make people understand that they are not going to be oem strong without us as the builder being in question of ability fo getting the job done right id use them myself. but we know how that will go. if you send a few out and there not quite as strong as other work youve done are the owners going to own up to using aftermarket over oem? or are they going to keep hushed up and blame the builder? i myself dont want to find out.

I think I could have gotten a bit more out of it but didn't ever go back in. If anything was holding those back it would have been in the transfer tunnels. The newly revised jugs may be a bit better.....I've not seen the newest 460 kit though.

 

[thomas1]

The only real problem I see is the reverse taper in the squish, but that being said, joe homeowner isn't going to be pulling the base gasket to try for 200 psi, and you guys cut the squish band anyway, so.....

I still don't understand why its so much more work to port these. If the exhaust port is out of whack, so what? You grind it all out anyway. Does it really take that much more time to go another eighth of an inch?

Sorry, that post was already ignored two pages ago.

How much more work are they? 10 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours?

If you are cutting the squish band anyway, I don't see that much more time there. Is there a tremendous difference in the time to port one of these versus a OEM cylinder?

 

[Mastermind]

Sorry, that post was already ignored two pages ago.

I did spend a few minutes longer on a Meteor top end. That plating is really tough.....dulled my cutter on the squish cut and had to resharpen.

 

[tlandrum]

I think I could have gotten a bit more out of it but didn't ever go back in. If anything was holding those back it would have been in the transfer tunnels. The newly revised jugs may be a bit better.....I've not seen the newest 460 kit though.

your absolutely right. the transfers are the weakest point. sometimes they are the weak point of a lot of port jobs too. it takes the whole package to make a solid performing saw.

 

[DSS]

Sorry, that post was already ignored two pages ago.

I know, but I thought someone might feel sorry for me and answer, due to the fact that I am a simple minded canadian living in an igloo. :msp_unsure:

 

[BloodOnTheIce]

I've sold probably 30+ Meteor top end kits and and 100+ pistons to people online and haven't had anyone
come back gripe about them. There's a reason people are buying these and that's because they don't want to shell out
225$+ for OEM, if the quality isn't 100% of OEM, there's a reason for it.

 

[Mastermind]

I've sold probably 30+ Meteor top end kits and and 100+ pistons and haven't had anyone come back gripping.

Well that says a lot. :msp_thumbup:

 

[BloodOnTheIce]

Well that says a lot. :msp_thumbup:

I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement or they're perfect.
But if the quality was bad enough that there were performance or
reliability issues I would have gotten an ear full by now.

 

[Mastermind]

I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement or they're perfect.
But if the quality was bad enough that there were performance or
reliability issues I would have gotten an ear full by now.

Exactly.